Thousands Evacuate Yellowknife as Wildfires Threaten Canadian Far North

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces construct firebreaks in the vicinity of Yellowknife and Dettah, in the Northwest Territories in Canada, in an undated photo (Handout)

Thousands of people rushed to the small airport in Yellowknife on Thursday as a long line of cars took the only highway, fleeing the wildfires that threaten one of the largest cities in Canada’s Far North.

More than 20,000 people were ordered on Wednesday evening to evacuate the capital of the Northwest Territories of Canada, threatened by a major blaze about fifteen kilometers from its walls.

“The highway was completely blocked” as we exited the city on Wednesday evening, Yellowknife resident Julie Downes told AFP by phone, describing several fires “the size of houses” licking the side of the road.

“We northerners are climate change refugees,” adds the woman who fled with her husband and their three dogs in a trembling voice.

Canada has been experiencing a record breaking fire season since the spring. The country has been confronted in recent years with extreme weather events, the intensity and frequency of which have been increased by global warming.

In all, more than half of the population of the territory is under evacuation order.

Several videos on social media show vehicles driving at night through the thick smoke of the fires, guided by patrol vehicles towards the neighboring province of Alberta, where several reception centers have been set up. , but the closest of which is 1,150 kilometers from Yellowknife.

“I have never had to drive in such circumstances,” Nadia Byrne, another resident who left the city on Tuesday evening, told AFP for fear that the situation would escalate.

She had to leave her police husband behind and describes the scene as the “scariest” of her life. “Everything seems unreal right now, I would never have expected such a situation,” adds the 24-year-old, saying she is very “stressed” and “anxious”.

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“There was a bit of panic in the city when the evacuation order was announced,” adds Sylvia Webster, in her thirties, as she finishes packing her things to leave.

“But today, everyone is calmer,” adds this graphic designer, aware that she “risks losing everything” because her house is on the edge of town, where firebreaks have been erected and cut trees.

Several commercial and military flights south were also scheduled from Yellowknife on Thursday.

In the city, vehicles piled up at gas stations, leaving neighborhoods nearly deserted while in the air, Canadairs flew close to homes.

– A blaze at the gates of the city –

The city is threatened by “a blaze in the west” and “without rain, the fire may spread to the surroundings of the city this weekend”, Shane Thompson, Minister of Environment for the Territories, said on Wednesday evening. Northwest, ordering the evacuation of residents.

Precipitation is expected in the coming days, the first this month. But they should arrive with thunderstorms and lightning, threatening to start new fires.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to convene an intervention group on Thursday.

The day before, he indicated that the armed forces were still deployed to provide assistance to the population of the region.

Several planes and helicopters as well as a hundred soldiers were thus mobilized to help with the evacuations.

Separated by several hundred kilometers from each other, the villages of the region are “particularly difficult” to evacuate by land, explained earlier this week Mike Westwick, of the territorial fire department.

Along with Yellowknife, this is the second time a major Canadian city has been evacuated due to wildfires. In 2016, 100,000 people had to flee Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Earlier in the year, suburbs of Halifax on the Atlantic coast were also evacuated.

More than 1,050 fires are currently ravaging Canada from east to west, including 236 in the Northwest Territories. Nearly 14 million hectares – roughly the area of ​​Greece – have burned in the country since the start of the season, nearly double the last record from 1989.

And the season is still likely to last two months, warned the authorities last week.

maw-bur/cha

2023-08-17 21:38:59
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